Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine
| Princess Palatine Elisabeth Charlotte | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Orléans | |
 |
|
| Born |
27 May 1652 Heidelberg Castle, Heidelberg, Electoral Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 8 December 1722 (aged 70) Château de Saint-Cloud, Île-de-France, France |
| Burial | Basilica of Saint Denis, France |
| Spouse | Philippe I, Duke of Orléans |
| Issue Detail |
Alexandre Louis, Duke of Valois Philippe II, Duke of Orléans Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine |
| Father | Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine |
| Mother | Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel |
| Religion | Calvinism then Roman Catholicism |
| Signature |  |
Princess Elisabeth Charlotte (German: Pfalzprinzessin Elisabeth Charlotte; 27 May 1652 – 8 December 1722) was a German princess and, as Madame, the wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and mother of France's ruler during the Regency. Louis invoked her hereditary claim to the Palatinate as pretext to launch the Nine Years' War in 1688. Her vast, frank correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV for half a century, from the date of her marriage in 1672.
Princess Elisabeth Charlotte was born on 27 May 1652 in Heidelberg Castle, to Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel. Her grandmother Elizabeth of Bohemia was a Scottish and later English princess, daughter of James I of England and granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots. Her first cousin became George I, the first Hanover King of England. In childhood she became known as Liselotte—a portmanteau of her names. Her parents were in an unhappy dynastic marriage and in 1653 her father began an affair with Marie Luise von Degenfeld, one of his wife's attendants. He purported to marry her motu proprio as a prince-elector of the Empire, without benefit of a judicial divorce, and claimed to have done so to legitimise the bastard children. Liselotte was five years old when she was sent to live with her father's sister, Sophia, wife of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.
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